Looking into the Language of Russians | Clint Walker | TEDxUMontana

Languages are vital for cross-cultural communication, but they also act as a repository for cultural values. We take a glimpse into the collective psyche of Russian speakers by digging in the deep layers of the Russian language.Clint Walker received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. An Associate Professor of Russian at the University of Montana, he teaches courses in language, literature and cinema. His research interests include 19th century Russian prose and how Moscow is reflected as a cultural space in 20th century literature and film. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx

Slavic scholars differ widely in both the terminology and periodization of the language development, the Common Slavic period comes after Proto-Slavic. The period Profesor Walker refers to, I suppose, is a period of Late Common Slavic as a spoken and Common Old Slavic as a written language. I would ask you to raise a thumb for his attempt to bring the Slavic spirit closer to the Western world.

A rule of thumb: if you want to learn about Russia, try to avoid Western "experts". With their long and rich history, Russians don't need "to discover who they are". And most of them certainly don't want to be part of the West(ern Cartel) which nowadays simply means dancing to the tune of Washington.

Wow! Reading the comments of Russian speakers here I am again struck by how monolingual Americans who manage to blunder their way through the rudiments of a foreign language, immediately assume themselves to be authorities and experts. Even HRC who ostensibly had access to Russian translators didn't bother to ensure that she was using the correct word on her diplomatic 'gift. This speaker is typical of ignorant people, who nevertheless always presume to know more than they actually do, and then pass on to others their stupid misinterpretations.

While I appreciate the overall sentiment that Russian is a fascinating language that holds key to understanding the history and culture of the people who speak it (so does English, mind you, or any other language for that matter), a lot of the examples he provides are complete bollocks. For instance, there’s no connection between ‘хорошо’ and ‘хор’ or between ‘крест’ and ‘воскресать’. They are what is known as folk etymology, ie misconceptions based exclusively on phonetic similarity of words and unsupported by any etymological evidence. So this guy is either seriously misinformed or just plain lazy and couldn’t be arsed to do any actual research. Our governments might not be on the friendliest of terms, but it doesn’t mean we can’t find joy in exploring and discovering each other’s language and culture. It’s just really odd that someone would try and prove this point by spreading such obviously erroneous information.

Interesting conference, thank you, you got into something fundamental here but there's still a confusion between Russian speaking people the way we understand it in the West and how it is perceived in Russia and former USSR states. See, in Ukraine the far right extremists, most of them being Poles originally, want to get rid of all Russians on their soil (meaning Ukraine) which, in their minds, means Russian speaking people, no matter if they are Russian citizens or Ukrainians. In fact, and it demonstrates what you say, their first decision after the push in 2014 was to eradicate anything Russian beginning with the Russian language although it's been Ukraine's language for more than a thousand years and Ukrainian, actually a Polish dialect also spoken in Belarus and the Baltic states where they don't call it Ukrainian, only became a language at the end of the 19th century, for political reasons and with the help of Russian speaking writers and authors who based it upon the old Russian language to give it a proper structure. So yes the language is one of the things that bring people together in Russia but never forget that what made Russia as a whole is religion, namely orthodoxy, and, as you pointed out, it shows in the Russian language. Today Russia is a country where several religions and ethnies live together in peace and nobody wants to go back to the roots (that's in fact the Soviet heritage where all Soviets were equal), unless they're rejected and treated as if there was no common history, religion and culture with them. Finally, about Putin's quote, remember he also said that he who denies the right to feel nostalgic at times about USSR has no heart, but he who wants it back has no brains. Further more, when later asked by a journalist about it, he explained that what he meant was that after USSR's disappearance 25 million Russians (which, remember, means both citizens of the former Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and Russian speaking people) became strangers in the country they lived in (and most of the time in which they were born and grew up) overnight, without a chance to become citizens of any of these countries, with Russian language being banned as one of the official languages. Who pushed these countries to act so brutally? Well there has never been a vote from the people on this issue in any of these countries but they all became NATO members (without a democratic vote either) soon after. In other words, Americans knew what you just told us : the best way to destroy unity, History and culture in former USSR and isolate Russia so that it no longer stands in the way, is to eradicate the Russian language wherever it is possible to do so. In Caucasus they also worked on eradicating orthodoxy with the help of Saudi Arabia. Russian language and orthodoxy are what brought people together in Russia from day one, if you want to destroy Russia and divide it into multiple harmless (for the Anglo-Saxon imperialists) countries, destroy the Russian language and orthodoxy. It looks to me as if that's what some heartless and brainless greedy people have been working on for at least 25 years... The Russian anthem says : Russia, our sacred state, Russia, our beloved country, you are unique, one of a kind, our loyalty to the Motherland gives us strength, that's how it always was, that's how it is today and that's how it will always be...

Ася Губар , It should never matter. Not for me nor for you. I never discriminate some other people's opinions based on their location, nether should you. That is , if you want to ask questions or hear any answers .

And Why Soviet Union is not Russia ? Just because "Space" is not divided on some made up strictly political values(or united) , it doesn't stop being a "Space" If Russia is "Space" no matter how you are eager to divide it(based on your intolerance, hate and inhumanity), it will always stay as "Space" On top of it , .If there are Exactly the same people with the same race, culture that lived there before and live there now .... it is the same country anyway no matter how you , hate adoring political animal call it........Just because the truth is not something that you have expected to hear, it doesn't mean that the propaganda you expected to hear has any truth in it.

The problem with US-Russia relations is totally not with the lack of understanding.The real problem - US is a duplicitous, hypocritical, lying, conniving, warmongering, predatory, supremacist, hegemonic neo-colonial empire. In some aspects US is even worse than Nazi Germany (Nazis, at least, were honest and straightforward about their intentions).There are no problems with understanding Russians apart from those purposefully created by US brainwashing its sheeple (very good examples of brainwashing in the intro).The US-Russia relationship is best described as a relationship between a hungry cannibal psycho (that is US) and another person. What's the point of "understanding" your dinner? All you need to understand is how to kill and cook it, and US is doing just that.

I speak Russian. I appreciate this person's passion for the language, but he's inventing a lot of his language connections. "Xop" (pronounced Khor) which means singing in a group is not connected to the Russian word for "good" (khorosho) it's just a Slavic way of saying choir.

I understand that the intention of this speaker were good, but it is unfortunate that most people get their understanding of the world from these types of pseudo-intellectual "talks". The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

They should really talk more about how the saints Cyril and Methodius are from what was at that time Bulgarian land, and where sent by the Romans too make the ancient Cyrillic alphabet for the first Bulgarian Empire. Not trying too deny the point this talk is making, but just kind of upset of the negligence cultures just because of their modern day strength.

There are several false facts here: there were no Slavic people counties in the modern point of view like "Russian" or "Bulgarian" at the time of Cyril and Methodius who invented Glagolitic (not Ćirilica) letters, the term "Romans" is correctly used in the comment if it refers to East Romans or Byzantines, Glagolitic letters were created for all Slavic people, to be precise, Cyril and Methodius were sent to Moravia (geographically the territory of modern Čech Republic) to spread Christianity. Their influence was strong and they left their mark in the whole Slavic region at the time, however, the Glagolitic script was abandoned and replaced by the Ćirilica that was modeled upon the old Greek Alphabet.

"Russian prince Vladimir" is wrong. He was the prince of Rus, he wasn't russian... Modern russians just took the name "Rus". It's like Romanians, who think they are the real descendants of the Roman empire... lol

To tell that Volodimer (the original name) was russian prince is the same as to say that King Jan Sobieski is Ukrainian King. Modern day Russia was barely inhabited areas without slavic population, assimilation came much later after yeats of christianity. Then they were converted to oldbulgarian (churchslavonic)

It's kind of disgusting. Pretending to give an illuminating talk about russian language, to actually use a propaganda instruments in order to clean the image of this barbarians. Saying that words sounds and structure close to each other are coming from the same roots, and those 'roots' conveniently being the 'positive' or 'spiritual' ones are exactly one of the instruments used in the processes of annihilation, humiliation, denigration of other peoples. Incompleteness and untruthfulness of the message speaks a lot about the power of propaganda machinery.Unless i'm wrong, and this guy is so in love with Russia, that he is blind to the wrongs of this horrible people. Or he 's got some strange personal agenda...

This lecturer is a retard who knows fuck all about Russian culture. His translations are less than adequate and his knowledge of Russian history is sub par even for high school level, never mind the university academics. This video is a complete waste of time.

Vladimir The Red Sun is a wrong translation from Владимир Красное Солнце, because back in that day the word красное meant not the color, but the beauty/greatness, so the more correct translation would be Vladimir The Bright Sun or Vladimir The Great Sun or even Vladimir The Graceful Sun. Basically in that context that word would mean something abstractly good and loved.

Я только что посмотрел иностранного Задорнова.People like that called linguo-freaks. Who taking words or part of words, which look alike, and say: "oh! These words are connected!", "хор" it is from "хорошо", "поцелуй" from "целый", "спасти" from "пасти" etc.No! It is just an inflamed imagination, nothing related to scientific etymology.

It's wrong to perceive Russians as a "whole" and thinking nation. The present government is jumping out of their pants to foster a generation of dumb slaves and milking cows. The polls are a ruse, and there's no conventional way to make up for all the injustice. Constitution? Forget about that piece of paper! The real objective political system in Russia right now is neo-feudalism. With "neo" being something far-fetched. It's just feudalism all over.

Speaking about political Soviet anecdotes there's no negative anecdotes about Stalin no positive about Khrushev and Brezhnev is usually an old man who has senile marasmus. But who cares 70 years of Soviet period is all the same for Western people.

I many times notice that some western people have exaggerated pathetic affection towards Russian stuff. Sometimes you even meet a person who speaks Russian, or reads tons of Russian literature, but never ever been to Russia, and he/she in this pathetic exaltation imagines how Russian people are nice, brave, with this mystical russian soul. But honestly, the modern Russians have nothing in common to this stuff, They are brutal, cynical, selfish, I would say, a bit more than all other people.

Funny thing -- I keep recollecting the olden days now and smile to myself: when we lived in the USSR we didn't "see red" hearing "The United States of America". When we happened to be abroad, we didn't jump out of our pants trying to show off "the rightness of our way of life" , as the Western tourists were SO inclined to do while on a tour in the Soviet Union. I'm not talking about the politicians -- fuck them all -- but the attitude of common folk towards foreigners was way less aggressive and bossy in the Union than it was -- and still is -- in the States. Yet it was us who copped the "Evil Empire" stigma that lingers on decades after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. Funny thing, I told you, eh ?

Besides, what the hell are you talking about, "when we happened to be abroad?" Pretty much, only diplomats and athletes were the only people allowed to go abroad; the vast majority of the population wasn't. And you think it wasn't a repressive system?

That's true. "Russian prince Vladimir" is wrong. He was the prince of Rus, he wasn't russian... Modern russians just took the name "Rus". It's like Romanians, who think they are the real descendants of the Roman empire... lol

Not russian))) It's hard to explain if you don't speak russian but i'll try. There are two different words, which means different countries - "РУСь"( Kievan Rus) and "РОССия"(modern Russia)....In original form this proverb says "Въ лѣто 6390 … [и] сѣде Ѡлегъ кнѧжа въ Києвѣ . и реч Ѡлегъ се буди мт҃и градомъ рускими. "...."РУСкими" but not "РОССийскими"....cities of Rus, but not Russia.....That is very, very, very different things. Modern Russia is not a successor of Kievan Rus. Russia is a successor of Russian empire(renamed Tsardom of Russia by Peter I in 1721)...The successor of Tsardom of Russia was Grand Principality of Moscow(also known in English simply as Muscovy) - creation and vassal of Golden Horde....but Kievan Rus was totally destroyed by Mongols. The only state, which we can partically call the successor of Kievan Rus is the "Principality of Galicia-Volhynia" or "Kingdom of Rus"( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Galicia%E2%80%93Volhynia ) which was destroyed in 1349 by neighbors......So Rus and Russia is not the same!

Ukraine didn't exist then either. The country was called Kievan Rus and was as distant from modern Ukraine, as from modern Russia. Besides, haven't you heard the saying "Kiev is the mother of all Russian cities" ?

I came here because I love Russian culture, especially their dancing. I also loved the history tidbits about Prince Vladimir and the origins of Cyrillic being tied to Christianity. Very powerful history !

The only problem here is that Prince Vladimir has nothing to do with Russia or Russians. He was the Prince of Kyivan Rus, and he is Ukrainian as Kyiv also has nothing to do with Russia. Russia - is just a stolen name, a weak attempt of the country to create history that doesn't exist. The real Rus was on the territory of modern Ukraine and also some parts of modern Russia, which were later annexed just as the Crimea is now. So if you want to learn something about a country, find information that is historically true.

+Vlad VS ?? can't see any logic. I think people are called as they were called. Polish people have name Włodzimierz, Bulgarian - Vladimir (which is also used in churchslavonic), in Rus that name is Volodimer, his name was Volodimer (not VOLODIMIR). You can read original texts from that century and find it, oh wait you can't, then google it on Russian pediwikia. Clear?

Hey Yurius 1 ,based on your dumb fucked logic, I got a question for you....So Vlad the Impaler's name actually never been Vlad, it is a fucking VOLODIMIR ? ..The Volod The Impaler? Lol your are so fucking stupidly brainwashed cockroach , make the world a bit happier run and burst to peaces against a wall. Thank you.

Kissing is not stemed from "making whole", but from "forehead"("чело") meaning something like "foreheading", touching each other with foreheads. "Спасибо"("thank you") doesn't mean "may god save you" but rather just "be saved", no god involved."Воскресать"("to resurrect") is not of common stem with "cross" but with "create"."Peasants"("крестьяне") means "christians" not because they are thought as holy suffereres but just because "christians" was generic name for all people of christian nation that gradually became the name of specifically the simple pleb peasant men as they are the main mass of all the nation.Any case, I like his attitude. Language indeed has special place in russian culture. Some people in history called themselves plainly "humans" in their language as ethnonym, but slavic, or let's say slovic or slovian, called themselves "word people" or "speakers", because language is what they emphasized in their minds as determining a human or nation. May be there is something to that fact.

Part of it is true. Our language is spiritual.If we will go that deep into times when all people used diftongs instead of words, before any languages, we can suddenly realize, that we are the same language speakers, but very confused in order of it.Many facts of russian history are not true.Our ancestors lived on this territory and not only... before the glacier period , after it they moved to warmer regions and thougt people there many things.Our ancestors was in peace and harmony with nature and it`s powers - it doesn`t means they was not wise and they had greater knowladge about everything than we can imagine now a days.

+AdoraBell try to translate words "get" and "car" and you will see, that you are not really right.Vojna i mir in original mean - war and community, but old azbuka was ruined and modern phonetic alfabet not able to explaine a lot of old words. exe. - старец - starets - in modern - old man, in old lang. - speaking of saint. word мир in modern - peace and world; in old got 3 different writings and meaning.

In AD 886, the Bulgarian Empire introduced the Glagolitic alphabet, devised by Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 850s. The Glagolitic alphabet was gradually superseded in later centuries by the Cyrillic script, developed around the Preslav Literary School, Bulgaria at the beginning of the 10th century.Early Cyrillic was developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 9th century AD at thePreslav Literary School. With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union. Saints Cyril and Methodius are credited with devising the Glagolitic alphabet. They commissioned to establish theological schools. There they devised the Cyrillic script on the basis of the Glagolitic. Cyrillic gradually replaced Glagolitic as the alphabet of the Old Church Slavonic language, which became the official language of the Bulgarian Empire.

The peninsula of Crimea is not populated by Russian-speaking people, but by the Russians. And it's not 60%, but 95% or more of Russians are population there. To say that Crimea is populated by 60% of Russian-speaking people = to spread lie. Even in the whole country of Ukraine there are much more than 60% of Russian-speaking people, probably also around 90%, even in western regions. And definitely more than 95% of Ukrainians knows Russian language, and are able to speak it.

I am sure the lecturer means well, but the Russian word for "good/well" (хорошо) has nothing to do with the word choir/chorus. Its original meaning - most likely - is "high", "tall", "upright". Also, the Russian word "anecdote" (анекдот) doesn't specifically mean a political joke of the Brezhnev era; it's a funny story/joke in general. Finally, the word for peasant (= крестьянин, something like Krestyanin) is indeed related to Christianity, but not because peasants were suffering like Jesus had. Instead, the word just originally meant "believers; God-fearing folks", as opposed to heathens (= поганый, something like pogany, which originally mean "pagan", "infidel").

I agree +YETYland, plus I think the whole premise is rather absurd: it doesn't make sense to decide about the mentality of a country based on the etimology of the words. By the same time, you may as well decide that English-speaking culture is based on death worship, because the word "like", both meaning "find pleasant" and "similar to" come from a word meaning "body" or "corpse" (cognate with German Leiche)

Yes, that's exactly what the lecturer meant by "part of cultural mythology" when he mentioned Russian peasants as cross-bearers and thus purified by their sufferings. Unfortunately, the subtitles were loosely translated into Russian in this part and most Russian speakers didn't seem to catch that the author never claimed it was the true etymology of the word.However appealing the lecturer's enthusiasm may be, all in all, I find the truth/falsehood ratio in this presentation to be about 50%, which is a bit too high even for a popular research. The conclusions seem to be a little too hasty with insufficient raw data.

Because they want to appear to be reducing taxes by being thrifty. Not when it comes to the military budget or awarding big contracts to their friends, but when it comes to running the functions of government that serve all of the people. So they go on the cheap and have an aid do a google translate on the word reset instead of paying a professional translator. With a virulent anti big government administration in charge under Trump, we will see even more serious fax pas.

This guy is like the only Russian weeb I've ever seen and I can now feel the pain of the Japs and Koreans, not to mention a lot of what he said was exaggerated or fabricated. There are plenty of Russian-Americans that can do a much better job than he can.

As positive as the message is trying to be, he is really making a fetish out of the language. Putting a language and culture in a box with a label "Spiritual" isn't going to do anyone any good. You want to know what "Russian Soul" means? Put your Dostoyevski down and go read Pushkin, Lermontov, Ahmatova, etc. Russian is a language of effortless poetry yet rarely do you find translations because it's not what the Westerners want. Or better yet, go watch some older films - Kin Dza Dza, To Kill a Dragon (Ubit' Drakona), Eldest Son (Starshii Sin)...Seriously, I love my language and country and all, but people need to stop obsessing over the wrong things.

Had Professor Walker as my professor and, I'd like to say friend, for four short years at the University of Montana. His passion never ceased to amaze me, and it still amazes me. This talk was like sitting in one of his lectures again.Every language has its own meaning and way of conveying their cultural history and values. I am currently learning my 5th language, Mandarin Chinese, but there is something that always brings me back to Russian, not to German, or Spanish. Nothing captivates me with depth of meaning in every word spoken, as Russian does.Слава тебе, русский язык!

dakota whislerYou might want to check my critique of Professor Walker's presentation. I gather you won't need a translation. Otherwise, I could do that for you and anyone interested.it can be found in answer to TrunoVSergeY's request for argumentation.

You know, it is very nice to read that. About your love to Russian language, about your regard to your Professor. Seems like he's done his job well Those comments show that people still have their good side in them and they don't afraid to show it, which is actually a big deal. I also remember professors from my university and I still can't forget the passion they had in their words and eyes.

This is one of the STUPIDEST presentations on TED. There's nothing much about the Russian language, its grammar and complexity or its development. It's only some nonsense throw ups of words, that are not even interpreted correctly. Besides making non-functioning connections in the 'anecdote' part, all the speech is an UNSUCCESSFUL try to put down the Communism and the superiority of the Russian social justice believes over today's miserable American corpo-capitalism and filthy imperial-globalism, which brought only suffering and destructions in many parts of the world. Your inhumane corpo-capitalism will COLLAPSE in a much bloodier revolution than the 'Soviet system' that you're talking about. Majority of Americans are already fed up with it and it's a matter of time when the corpo-elite that controls your society collapses. Also, making fun of John Lennon is not fun neither, because he was much smarter than many Americans, including this presenter. And yes, Crimea will always be Russian, for your big disappointment. You won't be able to win over Russians, because Russians are much smarter and stronger than you and any other likewise westerners. So, please don't play on Russians' and Putin's nerves because if they want, they can now achieve in seconds the society that Soviets couldn't then because of your interference. That will be a much happier world where human well-being is placed on top instead of money and environmental destruction. Adios.

PRobably you are right. I am not sure where you from also I live in Russia and I think it is fun to live here especially if you are a good grown person with right connection if you know what I mean. The main problem of Russia today is causing most smart and talented peaople left to Eourop and US when USSR was collapesed and never come back then next generation had borned in poor country however the goverment has only oil deposits and get it for its needs

Conspiracy bullshit. People in Russia live under a self-serving dictator who cares NOTHING for his people. The economy is based solely on oil production, which is not worth much nowadays. It's basically a Third World country with the bomb.

+Lulasz panslavia.com/ is where the map is from. Also, map says slavic spoken in the past in regards to the greater German speaking area. Soooo, that would make the time period before Tacitus, and before Marcus Aurelius, so the truth of anything going on at that time, or in this case before it, will always be blurred. Archeological Evidence points to the Germanic tribes having reached the Neterlands, from Scandanavia, around 750 BCE. Slavs as a terms refers to an ethnic group, with borders convined by the Danube, the Elbe, and the Vistula around the 530s BCE. So we have one of two theories: 1)The slavs never checked out the other sides of those rivers in 200 years or 2) majority of Germany was completely empty during that time. It wasn't inhabited by the Celts. Either way, this is two months too late and I wish I had seen this video sooner. We could have had a good discussion about it.As far as the slavic speaking world having once incorporated Turkey....no clue. Although the Celts reached Anatolia by the early 200's BCE, why not the Slavs? Will have to do some digging on that one.

I have never thought about my native language from this point of view. Any language is a soul of nation and when alian understand it, it means, that togetherness is the worst. And it is very pleasant, that some people are delighted with our language, with our culture and try to understand such a difficult Russian soul

An interesting video, and worth the watch. Food for thought here. From the opening question, and what that makes you think about, to the description of the Russian language working in a sort of picture-package. Much as the Hawaiian language does. We say it is raining. The Hawaiians would have a word to describe the exact type of rain, and the situation.